Inscriptions of Ingolstadt

Money-Eating Plant

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Coming to the entrance of the Former Anatomical Institute's garden in the Anatomiestraße you will see some sort of plant whose mere existence might be frightening because of the seemingly endless Euro crisis that is a worldwide financial crisis in disguise.

Inscription

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The red and golden artificial flower stands on a green cash box whose inscription asks for voluntary donations destinated to contribute to the financing of the garden's cultivation and maintenance.

The pseudo-Latin name of the flower is a joke that makes laugh any botanist or friend of plants. It was forged according to the model of scientific plant names. Its first part is evocative of a name like petunia whereas its second part makes you think of plants like colura zoophaga (which is a species of epiphytic liverwort). The Greek and Latin ending -phaga means eating. The first part of the word indicates what will be eaten. So colura zoophaga means animal-eating liverwort or liverwort that eats animals.

The presumed German name of the plant takes advantage of the fact that there are many German botanical names ending in "-wurz" (= root) and especially Gelbwurz (Xanthorhiza simplicissima), which literally means yellow root. It is not a long way from Gelb (yellow) to Geld (money) - and many Euro coins are yellow!

As for the rest of the inscription, note that there is not any control at the entrance of the garden. You can enter without paying anything - and decide later, when leaving the marvellous beds of medicinal plants, whether it is worth your while to sponsor the garden... (I think it is.)

Note that there is not only a garden entrance just on the left of the building of the former Anatomic Institute but there is another, somewhat hidden one at the other end of the garden - and on that side you will not find another pecunia europhaga!

The Former Anatomical Institute (Alte Anatomie, often called Old Anatomy in English) is a nice baroque building that nowadays hosts the German Museum of the History of Medicine. It was designed by the famous architect Gabriel de Gabrieli. His wide-spread works form a very long list you can only read in the German Wikipedia under Gabriel de Gabrieli because there is no similar article in the English Wikipedia (in 2012).

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Arrival by Public Transport

For the arrival in Ingolstadt, see Inscriptions of Ingolstadt.

There are two entrances to the garden of the former Anatomical Institute of the University of Ingolstadt, one in the Griesbadgasse and the other in the Anatomiestraße. I advise you to take the latter because it is just on the left of the building which is now the German Museum of the History of Medicine (Deutsches Medizinhistorisches Museum) and our money-eating plant is exactly there. The official address is Anatomiestrasse 18 - 20. The following instructions are valid for this address.

Looking at the front of the Old Cityhall (Altes Rathaus), take the Sauerstraße to the left and continue straight ahead till the end of the Kanalstraße, where you turn to the right into the Anatomiestraße. You will soon find the museum on the right side of this street.

Indications concerning the arrival correspond to our personal knowledge or even experience, but we cannot assume any responsibility for their rightness. When you are reading this page, things may have changed in reality.

Hans-Rudolf Hower, 2012

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Last updated: April 4, 2016